We met my husbands friend Paul for dinner and decided on a place right next door to the hotel we were staying at. It was beautiful outside so we decided to dine on the patio. Keeps things easy in case Robert gets overwhelmed....or so I thought. Before we could even order Robert became a little upset and threw his crayons. I got up and retrieved them from the ground near a table that was occupied by two older couples. I heard one of the men say 'oh my God what's going on?' I didn't say a word....just retrieved the crayons, shot him a nasty look and went 5 feet back to our table. I thought to myself as I gave him the death stare...calm down you old f*cker...I'm just getting some crayons. Anyhow, they, the table full of old uneducated a$$holes (we shall refer to them as TFOUA), kept making little snide comments. Our friend Paul was seated at our table in a way that he was in direct view of them and could not only see them staring at Robert but could also hear their ignorance. Paul said to me, 'if they say one more thing, I'm going over there.' We caught my husband up on what was going on because he was keeping Ronan occupied. Robert was then entering full blown meltdown because he wanted 'little' ice....some of his ice cubes were stuck together and I couldn't get them apart. When he started screaming and throwing a fit the TFOUA got a little loud with their displeasure and my husband and Paul got up and walked over....it was a fairly pleasant exchange that kind of went like this - He's autistic you ignorant ass. We heard the wife of one of the gentlemen say, 'You don't even like kids, keep your mouth shut.' They were genuinely appalled that anyone dare say something negative to them and to call them ignorant...oh my. It shut them up though. I explained to my husband and Paul that stuff like that happens to me far too often. I'm very used to the 'unawareness' in this world. I deal with it daily.
Behind me and to my left was another table with a man and woman sitting at it. I did not know this at the time but the woman at that table happened to work at this restaurant and she also witnessed everything that went on. She immediately alerted our waitress to the exchange and our waitress apologized profusely. We let her know, it was in no way, shape or form her fault...nor the restaurants. But we definitely appreciated her concern. The manager even gave us 10% off our bill all because some ignorant jerks had to be ignorant and cause a seen.
So, the moral of this story is, Autism Awareness is not alive and well - people still have no idea what Autism is and people are very quick to judge. Also, if you are ever in Lake Geneva Wisconsin, I highly recommend Sprecher's Restaurant and Pub http://www.sprecherspub.com/ 111 Center St, Lake Geneva, WI 53147 (262) 248-7047. Not only is their food delicious and reasonably priced, they staff an amazing group of people who go above and beyond. (I wish I knew our waitresses name - If you read this kind waitress, THANK YOU again for your thoughtful words.)
Have a good day and please spread the awareness!
